After months of threatening to leave California, Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk has moved on to Texas.
Musk confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that he has relocated to Texas, in a move further signalling his discontent with California’s regulatory environment. He said he had been planning the move for months, while Tesla and SpaceX will maintain operations in California.
Musk pointed out that those companies are the last remaining manufacturers in the automotive and aerospace sector to operate in California.
“The two biggest things that I got going on right now are the Starship development in South Texas and then the big new US factory for Tesla,” the 49-year-old Tesla chief told The Wall Street Journal.
“It wasn’t necessarily a great use of my time here (in California).”
Musk has fought consistently with California officials throughout 2020. In May, he reopened production at Tesla’s Alameda County facility in violation of COVID-19 regulations.
He has also criticised California’s high income taxes. Texas does not impose a state income tax.
A number of Silicon Valley executives have threatened to leave California and move their companies’ operations out of state, a move that may have become more attractive with most tech employees working from home.
Musk says he’s now splitting time between Austin and Boca Chica, the coastal site of a SpaceX facility.
In late November, Musk passed Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world, trailing only Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. His net worth is now approximately $128M, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
